AA employee, checked in Atta on 911, later commits suicide

[RamboLiberal]

Even more gruesome - PT911 slandered another person who is dead. Hope the f**kers at ABC are real proud of themselves.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/9/11/193549/448

Mon Sep 11, 2006 at 04:35:49 PM PDT
One of Oprah's guests today was Michael Tuohey, an employee of US AIR who checked in Mohammed Atta and one of the other hijackers on the morning of Sept. 11.

A 37-year employee of US Air, Touhey said he's recently started to see Atta's face staring at him from cabs that pass by on the street or even at his local mall, that even though he knows it's not him, Atta looks as real to him today as it did on Sept. 11.

Two ticket agents checked in Atta that day, Touhey and a woman with American Airlines in Boston. Touhey said the woman has already committed suicide, and he didn't seem far from it on the show. (No warning by Atta's name at all, BTW, you idiots at ABC. Nothing. ID checked out. Ticket checked out. Nothing to tell this broken man he shouldn't send Atta on his way.)

<snip>

The only thing Touhey could do was not give Atta and the other hijacker their boarding passed for the American Airlines flight they were scheduled to catch in Boston, which meant they'd have to check in with another ticket agent, one more chance for someone to do... well, the guy didn't say what. It was just the only thing he could do, absent any heightened security alerts. And there were none in place on Sept. 11. No heightened alerts to the airlines.

<snip>

(And I hope if she’s the one ABC implied ignored a security warning about Atta and she did kill herself over 911, that her family sues the hell out of ABC.)

[MadMaddie]

1. Once again as always with this Administration blame the people

at the bottom who have no real power...

Atta and the rest of the "Suadi's" should have been refused entry to the country because they filed incomplete paperwork for their VISA's....and when they took the flight classes their paperwork was also incomplete....

God I am sick of these poor people getting slammed for doing their job as it was mandated on that day.....

[Double T]

2. ABC does not give a damn..........

it is ONLY collateral damage in the war against the Democrats.

[napi21]

3. My sympathies to those employees who now feel maybe they should

have seen something or known something. I know I would feel the same way. I hope the airline is paying for some very good psychotherapy for him and anyone else in the same spot.


It is a memory that they will live with forever.

[Warpy]

4. Tuohey was in a tough spot that day

He was dealing with a customer who obviously had a lot of money and who he had a bad feeling about. There was no smell of alcohol, the man wasn't screaming or out of control, he just triggered something in Tuohey's gut.

Today, they'd probably look a little more closely. Back then, those box cutters were perfectly legal. If Tuohey had sounded an alarm, Atta would have been waved through when it was shown he had no gun or bomb.

It's not his fault. I hope someone tells him that every day.

[Straight Shooter]

21. "Gut feelings" (intuition) should always be heeded.

Lord knows I don't blame this man, I have certainly ignored my own gut feelings before, once or twice with disastrous consequences.

I highly recommend that everyone read "The Gift of Fear," by Gavin de Becker. It explains the process of intuition, why we have it, and why it is so valuable. Basically intuition is the result of our subconscious processing all the information coming at us through our senses, filtering them through our life experience, and then our gut just seems to pick at "what's wrong with this picture" and we hear that voice in our head telling us, "Uh-oh." But our society tends to scoff at intuition and to our detriment many of us don't trust that process.

https://www.gavindebecker.com/books-gof.cfm

Robert Ressler
FBI Behavioral Scientist
Author of "Whoever Fights Monsters":

"A modern-day survival manual for everyone in our society, uniquely and firmly founded on Gavin de Becker's extensive experience, and on his own life. This book contains wisdom that transcends traditional approaches to violence."

[Shakespeare]

22. In a society where fear is currently a political commodity, I disagree.

In fact, we can tread on very dangerous ground by giving too much credence to gut feelings--unless a person is exceptionally self-aware and well-adjusted. Unfortunately, a sizeable chunk of the population falls nowhere within that parameter.

[Straight Shooter]

24. Read the book.

I think you'll change your mind about the value of paying attention to your gut feelings. Even police officers often rely on their intuition. The expression is that something feels "hinky" to them.

I've read a lot of your posts and I have the impression you keep an open mind. I urge you to read the book. It's based on very sound ideas. It is not about telepathy or psychic talents or anything like that.

[WinkyDink]

29. TGoF = awesome book. Should be mandatory for females, at least.

[Straight Shooter]

30. I agree, absolutely. Thank you for pointing that out. n/t

[EFerrari]

5. More casualties of the rabid Right's irresponsibility.

:nuke:

[mnhtnbb]

6. Someone needs to remind Touhey that if the airlines had secured

their cockpit doors years before (as El Al did)when recommended, that
9/11 need not have happened. Yes, flight attendants might have been killed in an attempt to get pilots out of the cockpit, but the pilots could have controlled access to the cockpits.

The airlines, valuing bottom line over life, are complicit in the events of 9/11.

Didn't see that on your ABC "everything that could have been done to prevent it" movie, did you?

[Fridays Child]

7. ABC...Anything But Credible...

Assassinating Bill's Character
American Broadcast Criminals
Amoral Blackhearted Cheaters

[trotsky]

8. Check out this damning passage from the linked Yankee Magazine article:

http://www.yankeemagazine.com/thisissue/features/fiveyears911.php

He talks now about ... all he learned in the years after. About a briefing to the president on August 6, 2001. "It was all there," Tuohey says. "Osama bin Laden. Hijackings. Buildings in New York City. These weren't dots they had to connect. These were potholes. If just those words -- hijackings, terrorists -- had come down to us, we'd have gone to level 3 security. Now here I am. I have two young Arabic men in front of me. One-way tickets, checking in just minutes before departure. At level 3, I would have been required to notify security. Their bags would have been opened. What we saw would have set off suspicions: a pilot's uniform, a video on flying jets. Airline pilots do not buy $2,400 first-class tickets. Airline pilots are the cheapest people on earth. Right there, we would have known something was wrong. This was preventable."

Words cannot express the disgust and contempt I feel for the Bushies.

[RamboLiberal]

10. Thanks for posting this - that is fascinating

These poor people are still suffering - saying what if. While the turd in the WH read the 8/6 PDB and went fishing! And we know the turd and his concubine Condi don't lose one minute of sleep over that day. After all who could've known they would fly airplanes in to buildings!

[renate]

11. I sure wish he'd been able to talk this way on Oprah's show yesterday

He's so right. It was preventable. The clues would practically have been in their faces, singing and dancing, if there'd been a reason to notify security.

[arewenotdemo]

17. quite a contrast with an upbeat pResident

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?messageDate=2003-09-15

[Fridays Child]

20. Has this article had its own thread? If not, it surely should.

And it should be kicked and recommended by everyone here.

[Theres-a]

26. Deserves it's own thread nt

[trotsky]

28. I took your and the other poster's advice...

but it sank like a rock last night!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2121757

[Generic Other]

9. It just keeps getting uglier

No wonder those featured in the dramatization are upset.

[gully]

12. I can't confirm this, any other links? The Oprah link doesn't have info.

Just curious, I guess I'm hoping it's not true. :(

[RamboLiberal]

15. I tried to check too - couldn't find a verification

Though I'd think the Maine US Airways ticket agent is a straight-up guy. Hope that maybe the info he got is wrong.

[Felinity]

13. Oprah is on ABC

Wouldn't it be nice if one of the wealthiest women in the world terminated her relationship with those scum?

[glitch]

14. Yes. She could too. Any other network would jump at the chance.

I wonder what her contract is like.

This is what makes me sick "No heightened alerts to the airlines." The Bush Family will indeed live in INFAMY.

[gully]

16. She's on CBS in my local market?

eom

[Rainscents]

18. She's on NBC on my local.

[progressoid]

19. she's on CBS here

[Felinity]

23. Well I'll be darned!

I just checked Oprah.com and could find not evidence of network affiliation. It looks like she produces the show through Harpo and then sells it through syndication.

Does that mean I can watch even if I'm boycotting ABC? How confusing is that?

[progressoid]

25. It would be nice if she did tell them to go fly a kite

but I suspect she didn't become the richest woman in showbiz by ruffling too many feathers.

[tomreedtoon]

32. Welcome to reality! Today's lesson: "syndication."

Syndication is where a program supplier sells a program to individual stations or station groups. A network offers a whole slate of different programs, like news, entertainment and sports, to stations it owns (owned-and-operated, or O&O stations) or those that want to contract for its programs (called affiliates).

So yes, Oprah appears on stations of all the networks, or sometimes non-network independent stations. It all depends on who managed to nail down the Oprah contract, when she was nationally unknown but was selling her show. The station where I work, an ABC affiliate (owned by a separate company that owns auto auctions and newspapers as well) was lucky enough to grab Oprah at the start, and have profited immensely from running her show.

Look elsewhere on DU for other lessons in the real world of television, like why the government can't revoke ABC's license for the 9/11 fiasco, because networks are not licensed by the FCC or anyone.

[KharmaTrain]

27. Forward This To Aravosis At Americablog

John is the one prodding American Airlines to take action about being libeled in this mockumentary. This surely would get John's attention...especially if the portayal was distorted and caused grief and harm not only to U.S. Airways (big deal), but to this man's unfortunate family...who surely didn't want their loved one's crisis that would later cost his life to be portrayed on worldwide television.

Hopefully American will follow through and withdraw all their advertising from Disney...which could put a big hurt on the Mouse...especially all those flights into Orlando.

[newspeak]

31. yeah, and this administration could have given a "heads up"

to airports across this country when other countries are warning them-they have the August PDB and warnings from their own FBI. Let's face it-they didn't want to listen. If your telling INS to loosen the rules for SA immigrants, If you have FBI agents who know somethings coming down but higher ups won't listen, if you have intelligence bogging down translations of intercepts, then why in the world would I blame ticket agents for what happened on that terrible day? Those who were promoted and awarded at the top are more responsible than those on the bottom who apparently take their responsibility and love of their country more serious!!!!